Skip to main content

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He is the Heir of All Things by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous
In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The first claim is that Jesus was appointed by God the Father to be heir of all things. The word “appointed” here literally means “to put or place” and it was sometimes used in royal circles to refer to the installation of a king or to another person who was being granted a position of authority. So the point of this first claim is that God the Father has exalted the Son to an utterly exclusive, unique, and permanent place to which no other will attain, specifically, the Father has made him the sole heir of all things.

The word “heir,” as we would expect, refers to “one appointed to receive an inheritance” but the emphasis is not so much on what the Son has inherited as it is on the high position he has inherited. In other words, since Jesus has come into the possession of “all things,” he has come into the position of God.

Let’s think this through for a minute: normally an inheritance is granted when the owner of an estate dies, right? But in this case the Son has come into the fullness of his inheritance while God the Father lives, and the Father will always live! What a glory to think about the fact that the living God has bestowed “all things” upon his living Son and has thus made his Son equal to himself.

And what specifically has the Son inherited? Only this: everything in creation and all the promises of God! Everything that exists outside of the Father himself has become the possession of the Son, including the very great and precious promises that led to and are fulfilled in the Son. Galaxies and suns and moons and stars belong to the Son. Skies and trees and land and seas belong to the Son. The birds of the air and fish of the sea and beasts of the field belong to the Son. The promises God made to Abraham belong to the Son, namely, that he would bestow upon him land, seed, and blessing. The promises God made to David belong to the Son, namely, that if he would only ask, the Father would grant the nations as his inheritance. The promises God made through all of his prophets point to Jesus and are fulfilled in Jesus and are the blessed possession of Jesus.

Beloved, this is no theoretical claim: Jesus has inherited all things from his Father while his Father is still alive! Think about how great he must be in light of this truth. Think about how exalted a position he must hold in light of this truth. Indeed, Jesus is highly exalted and is alone worthy of our praise, our allegiance, our souls, our lives, our all!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Secret of all Failure is our Failure in Secret Prayer

By
“We may be assured of this—the secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer” (12). So writes the anonymous author of the classic little book on prayer entitled, The Kneeling Christian (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids: 1971). He means that the reason we so often fall into sin or live in discouragement or fail to bear fruit is because we do not cling to God in Christ above all things. We do not diligently seek him or lean on him or plead with him or draw on his strength. We give ourselves to busyness over communion with God and in this way we seek to accomplish in our flesh what can only be accomplished in the power of the Spirit.  Giving first place to what our dear author calls “secret prayer” is indeed a key to the Spirit-filled life but let’s be clear: prayer is not magic, rather, it’s a relationship. It’s not as if we simply have to file requests with God, being careful to use just the right words so that we can get him to respond as we wish. God is not a vending m
Post a Comment
Read more

Deacons - How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Part 1)

By
  One of the next important priorities for GCF is to establish deacons in the life of the church. On March 14, 2021 we were able to establish an elder team. Currently, we have a team of four elders overseeing the congregation of GCF.  However, there is more work to be done. I have come to see that establishing an elder team was the bare minimum that needed to happen for GCF to survive. I believe GCF now needs to turn our attention to raising up a team of qualified and willing deacons to serve the congregation so that it will not only survive but thrive.   I would like to begin a series of blogs on deacons to help us understand who they are and what they do in the life of the church.  In this blog let me provide three reasons why I think deacons should be near our top priority.  Number 1: It is Biblical. Paul instructs Timothy to install elders who will help him pastor the church. For whatever reason, it seems the churches in our circles treat the installment of elders as non-negotiable
Post a Comment
Read more

Does the Doctrine Divide? by Patience Griswold

By Anonymous
“Oh, I try not to talk about doctrine. It’s so divisive.” This is a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed, as well as implied, on many occasions, and one that raises the question, does doctrine divide? In answering this question, we must keep in mind a very important truth and that is that everyone holds to some sort of doctrine . “Doctrine” is defined as “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.” Regardless of whether or not someone publicly holds to a statement of beliefs from a particular church, every Christian, by definition, holds to a particular set of beliefs. As Carl Trueman observes in his book The Creedal Imperative ,       [W]hile Christianity cannot be reduced to doctrine, to mere teaching, it cannot be meaningfully separated from it, either. Even the most basic claims, such as “Jesus is Lord,” carry clear doctrinal content that needs to be explicated in a world where, as we have noted before, every heretic has his text and n
Post a Comment
Read more